“I’ll be honest, I was just blessed that day,” Barrette said Saturday from Hong Kong. “I bent the rail. “Even a car would be totalled.

“I just got lucky. Big-time luck."

Barrette suffered a laundry list of injuries in the crash including a concussion, two broken vertebrae in his back, and a neck dislocation. He also required surgery to repair a split lip.

“Most people thought I was done- probably for my whole career,” said Barrette, a celebrity back home in the Magdalen Islands, a tiny archipelago off the Quebec coast.

Done? Not a chance. Barrette jumped on his bike Saturday and rocketed to a silver medal in the men’s keirin – a race in which groups of cyclists follow a motorized pace setter and then sprint like mad to the finish – at the UCI track cycling World Cup in Hong Kong.

Matthijs Buchli, of the Netherlands, won gold and Im Chae-bin, of South Korea, finished third.

The first World Cup podium of Barrette’s career pretty much cements a berth for the 24-year-old in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.

Pretty amazing, considering not even three months have passed since he languished for two weeks in a Colombian hospital bed.

“I just stayed focused and really believed I could come back,” he said. “And boy, I did it.”

He took a second to let those words sink in.

“I really did it, and I think I’m even better than I was last August.”

Barrette introduced himself to Canadians last summer by winning two golds and a bronze at the Pan Am Games. He calls the Toronto experience a dream, followed by the nightmare in Cali.

Never once did he consider parking his bike in favour of a safer pursuit.

“Honestly, I’m just passionate about biking,” he says. “And I know the risk. On a daily basis, I take extreme risks. We go at really high speeds – over 80 km/hr – so I’m aware of the risk. I live with it.

“Sometimes, bad things happen. But I love my sport, and I’m motivated to do well in it.”

The entire Canadian contingent did more than ‘well’ in the first two days of racing at the final World Cup stop of the season. Vancouver’s Jasmin Glaesser won silver Friday in the points race. On Saturday, she combined with Stephanie Roorda, of Calgary, Laura Brown, of Vancouver, and former ski cross racer Georgia Simmerling, of West Vancouver, to win the gold-medal race in the team pursuit over Great Britain.

The victory gave Canada the coveted white jersey as World Cup overall champions.

“It’s pretty amazing to see the progress Canada has made in track cycling,” Barrette said. “I think we’re on the verge of what we want – which is to become a dominant nation.

“We’re definitely on the right path.”

Also on Saturday, Monique Sullivan and Kate O’Brien, both of Calgary, finished just off the podium in fourth place in the team sprint.

Notes: Skeleton racer Jane Channell, of North Vancouver, won the first World Cup silver medal of her career Saturday in Park City, Utah. Elisabeth Vathje, of Calgary, rolled into sixth spot. Barrett Martineau, of Calgary, finished a career-best eighth in men’s action … Erik Guay, of Mont-Tremblant, Que., came in 14th at a World Cup downhill in Wengen, Switzerland. Nathan Smith, of Calgary, battled through heavy snow to finish 15th at a World Cup 15-kilometre biathlon mass start race in Ruhpolding, Germany. Rosanna Crawford, of Canmore, Alta., placed 19th in the women’s 12.5-kilometre mass start.

Shawn Barber applied repeatedly over the last couple of years for membership in the prestigious six-metre club in pole vaulting.

He fell just short time and time again until Friday night when he finally cleared 6.0 metres at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada.

At age 21, Barber is the youngest man to ever sail over the six-metre barrier indoors.

He is the 19th chartered member of the club.

“I was trying to beat that six-metre mark for much of last year,” Barber said in a phone interview Saturday. “To get it this early in this season gives me a lot of hope going into Rio to jump.”

Barber has dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship but competes as a Canadian and lists Toronto as his hometown.

With Friday’s jump, Barber broke his old Canadian indoor record of 5.92 metres. His outdoor Canadian record is 5.93 metres.

“It’s not about hitting certain marks when I go to Europe now,” said the reigning world champion, who is heading across the Atlantic next week for a series of track meets. “Now it’s more about learning to jump and compete with the very best.”

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